A FAULTY sound system wasn’t the only notable misfortune to hit Joy Division on a fateful Birmingham gig on Friday, May 2, 1980.

A FAULTY sound system wasn’t the only notable misfortune to hit Joy Division on a fateful Birmingham gig on Friday, May 2, 1980.

Fans of the hugely influential Manchester four-piece will also tell you it was their last ever performance, before 23-year-old singer Ian Curtis committed suicide exactly 32 years ago today.

Legend has it the tragic signs of a tortured soul were there for all to see – his emotions laid bare in the gloomy writing of tracks such as Isolation and Love Will Tear Us Apart.

There were also the stresses of being a young father and a painful marriage break-up that, combined with health problems having been diagnosed with epilepsy, affected performances.

And the gig at Birmingham University’s High Hall, now called Chamberlain Hall, was one of those where the problems surfaced.

“I remember the day. I remember the gig,” says Joy Division bass player Peter Hook, better known as Hooky.

“The sound was so bad and you could hear it right from the soundcheck. And, unusually for us, we made quite a few mistakes – which we never did. We were always really tight and together.

“When Ian got poorly our set suffered and I remember Isolation was played very badly that night. It sticks in my mind. He was so ill it was affecting us all.”

It’s the kind of sad tale that allows tragic, romantic myth to form around bands, of which Joy Division are arguably the best example.

Although fans could further tell you how the band – whose importance has been acknowledged by the likes of U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Moby, Editors, The Killers and Kings of Leon to name a few – went on to even greater commercial success in forming New Order.

But the continuing influence of Joy Division, who only put out two albums in 1979’s Unknown Pleasures and the following year’s Closer, is hard to deny.

“The weird thing with Joy Division is that we ignored them for so long after Ian died,” says Hooky ahead of his new band’s Joy Division Celebration gig at Birmingham’s O2 Academy this month.

“We hardly played any of the songs for 30 years and it’s nice to feel that we’re getting them back.

“I know there’s the mythology of an untimely rock and roll death and that does give it an edge, but I would say that it’s the Joy Division music that still moves people and it stands up very well compared to modern music.”

And Joy Division fans can expect to hear many of their old favourites, along with Unknown Pleasures in its entirety, as Hooky takes centre stage – with an outside chance of help from Happy Mondays singer Rowetta.

“My voice is on the same register as Ian, but I didn’t want to sing when I started this project,” he says.

“I just wanted to play bass, so I lined up a couple of singers to look at, but there was huge internet criticism and it scared them all off and Rowetta was the only one willing to take it on.

“I wanted her to sing everything, but she said ‘No duckie, some of these are men’s songs with male sentiments – you’re going to have to sing’. And she was right, really.

“It makes sense for me to sing. It feels more right – more connected to where the songs came from and what they’re about.

And the strange thing is, my son, Jack Bates, plays bass in the band and he’s in his early 20s, which is the age we were when Joy Division wrote and performed.

“It’s like seeing myself from that time when I turn around and see him playing.